Shanghai Starbucks Sucks Decaf
All Starbucks outlets here in Shanghai were overcrowded between 10:00 and 12:00 this morning. Free coffee makes people stand in line. A smart marketing ploy by Starbucks that offered also free coffee yesterday in the rest of the world.
.
So why the “sucks decaf” title you may wonder.
Every now and then, hyper from too much caffeine in my blood, I order a decaf. Every time I order this I get first a blank stare after which I’m told, “We don’t have”.
Giving free coffee away is great, listing coffee for sale that is never available sucks.
Posted
Friday, March 16th, 2007 at 6:30 am,
View related entries in Shanghai Life.
Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 17th, 2007 09:40
I take it you did not get a card offering you a free drink the next time? Here in the states, that’s what Starbucks does if they don’t have the drink you ordered.
March 17th, 2007 10:14
Interesting and good service, at least in the US:)
I wish they did that here but unfortunately Starbucks doesn’t feel the need to offer the same service level in China.
The baristas actually look rather bewildered and try to steer me in buying a cup with caffeine. What surprised me the most is that this has been happening in more than 5 different outlets in the last month.
Maybe the decaf shipment didn’t make it into China.
April 2nd, 2007 19:09
Well, Starbucks in Shanghai is not even operated by the same group as the US. There it is run by Taiwan food giant Unipresident’s “President Coffee” division. Starbucks has finally, and belatedly, realized just how much damage has been done to their brand and retaken their China rights from Unipresident in order to fully control their planned massive nationwide expansion.
When I was living in Shanghai my GF worked at starbucks, she said that they would get penalized for not using all of the coffee ordered in a month. Because of this the manager would often have them brew decaf in place of regular just to use it up and not tell anybody. Good stuff, guys.
March 25th, 2009 05:20
I used to work fr Starbucks in the USA. I did not stay long because they are a dishonest company full of dishonest people. You will be much healthier and much better off to stay away from Starbucks. Not very many people in the USA go there any more.
March 25th, 2009 05:22
I used to work for Starbucks in the USA. I did not stay long because they are a dishonest company full of dishonest people. You will be much healthier and much better off to stay away from Starbucks. Not very many people in the USA go there any more.